BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Vaccines from the West, Russia or China? Or none at all? This dilemma faces nations in southeastern Europe, where coronavirus vaccination campaigns are starting slowly – overshadowed by heated political debates and conspiracy theories.
In countries like the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia, Romania and Bulgaria, vaccine skeptics include former presidents and even some doctors. Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic was among those who said they did not want to be forced to get vaccinated.
False beliefs that the coronavirus is a scam or that vaccines would inject people with microchips have spread to countries that were previously under severe communist rule. Those who once routinely underwent mass inoculations are deeply divided over whether or not to receive vaccines.
“There is a direct link between support for conspiracy theories and skepticism about vaccination,” warned a recent study in the Balkans. “The majority in the region do not plan to get the vaccine, a considerably smaller proportion than in other parts of Europe, where the majority are in favor of getting the vaccine.”
Only about 200,000 people signed up for the vaccine in Serbia, a country of 7 million people, days after the authorities started the procedure. On the other hand, 1 million Serbs signed a contract with 100 euros (US $ 120) on the first day that the government offered aid to the pandemic.
In the hope of encouraging vaccination, the Serbian authorities had their pictures on TV. However, they themselves are torn between obtaining the western-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or Russia’s Sputnik V, further divisions in a country that is formally seeking membership of the European Union, but where many advocate closer ties with Moscow.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Saturday received a shipment of 1 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, saying he will receive an injection to show that it is safe.
“Serbs prefer the Russian vaccine,” said a recent headline from Informer, a pro-government tabloid, while officials announced that 38% of those who applied for vaccines favor the Russian vaccine, while 31% want Pfizer-BioNTech version – a rough split between pro-Russians and pro-Westerners in Serbia.
In neighboring Bosnia, a war-torn country that remains ethnically divided between Serbs, Bosnians and Croats, politics is also a factor, as the Serbian half seemed determined to opt for the Russian vaccine, while the Bosnian-Croatian side is likely to switch to the Westerners.
Sasa Milovanovic, a 57-year-old Belgrade real estate broker, sees all vaccines as part of the “global manipulation” of the pandemic.
“People are trapped, they have no more life and they live in a state of hysteria and fear,” he said.
Djokovic said he was against being forced to get a coronavirus vaccine to travel and compete, but he kept an open mind. The best-placed tennis player and his wife tested positive in June, after a series of display games without social distance that he organized in the Balkans. They and their foundation donated 1 million euros ($ 1.1 million) to buy ventilators and other medical equipment for hospitals in Serbia.
Serbian Ministry of Health official Mirsad Djerlek described the response to the vaccine as “satisfactory”, but warned state broadcaster RTS that “people in rural areas generally believe in conspiracy theories, which is why we should talk to them and explain that the vaccine is the only way out in this situation. ”
A study by the Balkan Policy Advisory Group in Europe, published before the regional vaccination campaign started in December, found that almost 80% of citizens in the Western Balkan countries believe in the conspiracy theories of the virus to join the EU. About half of them will refuse to be vaccinated, he said.
Unfounded theories claim that the virus is not real or that it is a biological weapon created by the United States or its opponents. Another popular falsehood claims that Microsoft founder Bill Gates is using COVID-19 vaccines to implant microchips in 7 billion people on the planet.
The low level of information about the virus and vaccines, distrust of governments and repeated claims by officials that their countries are under siege by foreigners help explain the high prevalence of such beliefs, according to the Balkan think tank.
Similar trends have been observed even in some countries of the Eastern European Union.
In Bulgaria, widespread conspiracy theories have hampered previous efforts to deal with a measles outbreak. Research has suggested that mistrust of vaccines remains high, despite the increase in coronavirus cases. A recent Gallup International survey found that 30% of respondents want to be vaccinated, 46% will refuse and 24% are undecided.
Bulgarian doctors tried to change attitudes. Dr. Stefan Konstantinov, a former health minister, joked that people should be told that neighboring Greece would close resorts for tourists who were not vaccinated, because “this would ensure that about 70% of the population would run to get a vaccine” .
In the Czech Republic, where surveys show that around 40% reject vaccination, protesters at a major demonstration against government restrictions on viruses in Prague demanded that vaccination not be mandatory. Former President Vaclav Klaus, a fierce critic of the government’s response to the pandemic, told the crowd that vaccines are not a solution.
“They say that everything will be solved with a miracle vaccine,” said Klaus, 79, who insists that people must expose themselves to the virus to gain immunity, which experts reject. “We have to say loud and clear that there is no such thing. … I will not be vaccinated. ”
Populist authorities in Hungary have taken a hard line against disinformation of the virus, but vaccine rejection is still projected at around 30%. Parliament passed emergency powers in March that allow authorities to prosecute anyone deemed “inhibiting successful defense” against the virus, including “fomenting fear” or spreading false news. At least two people who criticized the government’s response to the pandemic on social media have been arrested, but none have been formally charged.
Romanian Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu said he is counting on family doctors to “inform, program and monitor people after the vaccine” and that his ministry will offer bonuses to health professionals based on the number of people who board . Asked whether such incentives would fuel anti-vaccination advertising, Voiculescu said: “I am more interested in doctors’ opinions on the matter than on anti-xxxxxers.”
Dr. Ivica Jeremic, who has worked with virus patients in Serbia since March and tested positive in November, hopes that vaccination programs will pick up speed as soon as people overcome the fear of the unknown.
“People will realize that the vaccine is the only way to get back to normal life,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic; Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary; and Vadim Ghirda in Bucharest, Romania, contributed.
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